Never Long Enough
by SG-girl
Summary: Inspired by the iPod challenges
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Never Long Enough**

**By: Hannah**

**Rating: M**

**Series: Song 'Verse**

_The Rules:  
1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.  
2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.  
3. Write a drabble/ficlet related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterwards!  
4. Do ten of these, then post them._

Carlton Lassiter/OFC

**1. Touch Me- Dhoom 2**

Carlton Lassiter did _not _think that the ATF liaison for the O'Neill case was drop-dead, walking heart attack gorgeous. He _didn't. _That being said, clearly Spencer _did_. At least he did if the way he was coming onto her like a cat in heat was any indication.

The psychic currently had one hand resting on the young woman's thigh and the other on the back of her neck, holding her while he _read _her. Carlton scoffed from his desk. Yeah, _that's _what Spencer was doing, _reading _her.

"I'm getting… I'm getting… jasmine. Jasmine… body-wash? Jasmine… soap? Could it be that absolutely delicious aroma that I scent around your aura?" one of the agent's eyebrows arched skyward, but that's the only expression that she showed aside from a politely interested expression. Carlton tried to pretend that it didn't make him feel better that she seemed to be completely unimpressed by Spencer's tricks.

**2. Oooh La La- Goldfrapp**

Breakthroughs in cases always happened when you're not expecting them. Carlton was already at the office – despite it being 5:30 am – so he was more prepared than anyone else who comes stumbling through the double doors to the Santa Barbara Police Department. In this case, it was Special Agent Jory Hendrix clad in jeans, a black-tank top, and hot-pink flip-flops with her blonde hair tumbling around her shoulders, looking like she'd just crawled into bed five minutes before the calls had gone out about the case. She somehow managed to make sleep-deprivation look sexy.

"Morning, detective," Hendrix said with a yawn and a stretch, a stretch that revealed a strip of bare skin when her tank top rode up. Carlton had to force himself not to stare. "Is there coffee?" she asked and Carlton pointed towards the fresh pot that he'd brewed twenty minutes ago.

He allowed himself 3.7 seconds of staring as she walked over to the coffee pot, her hips swiveling in her second-skin jeans and her muscles rippling under the tattoo that spreads across her shoulder blades and all he could think as she stirred half of the sugar in the container into her coffee was 'please god, don't let Spencer come in early and see her like this'.

**3. Gunboat- Vixtrola**

It was apparently too much to ask that the suspect come quietly, especially since the suspect in question was a 6'4 bear of man with a full head tattoo who smells like Bud Light. O'Hara had managed to get _one _handcuff on him and the man had apparently decided that was enough and flung his arm out, sending the young detective flying across the interrogation room. Before Carlton could even move, Hendrix was there, something in her hand that revealed itself to be a collapsible baton that extended out with a flick of her wrist.

Carlton closed in on the suspect's left and Hendrix on the suspect's right, leaving the man no room to escape. As if they could read each other's minds, Carlton leaped for the man's left side as with a thrust of her arm, Hendrix slammed the baton into the back of the man's right knee, their combined efforts taking the man to the ground where it was significantly easier to finish O'Hara's cuff job.

While Carlton stayed on top of the suspect, keeping him from moving, Hendrix scrambled to her feet, rushing to O'Hara's aid. Hendrix met Carlton's eyes for a brief moment and she smiled at him, a gesture that he hesitantly returned.

**4. Take It Off- Kesha**

"You know you want too." Spencer was at it again. Carlton gritted his teeth.

"You totally want too. The spirits told me so. They're telling me that _you_, Special Agent Jory Hendrix, want to go dancing with _me_, Shawn Spencer." O'Hara was taking a sick day after yesterday's excitement, so Hendrix had taken over his partner's desk, leaving Carlton with an up close and personal view of this unfolding effort at seduction.

"They told you that, did they?" Hendrix asked, not even looking up from the file in front of her.

"Yes, in fact, they were very emphatic about it. I'm seeing… darkness, flashing lights, music, alcohol flowing like ambrosia, beautiful women, dancing." Spencer's _vision _was accompanied by what Carlton assumed was an attempt to show what one was supposed to do when one was dancing. Carlton thought it looked like he was having a seizure.

"Sounds like a strip club, Spencer." Hendrix finally looked up from her paperwork and gave the psychic an arched eyebrow look. "Are you saying you want me to go to a strip club with you?"

"What? How are you possibly getting strip club from my description?" Spencer sounded mildly offended and Carlton had to smirk.

"Well, either way, it's a nice offer, but I already have plans with Lassiter." She said, stunning Spencer into silence, but more importantly, stunning Carlton into silence.

Wait, what?

**5. Bad Girl- Rihanna**

"How old are you, anyway?" Carlton was pretty sure that that was rude to ask, but he was four drinks into a sneak-attack date with Hen- no, her name was Jory and he was going to honor her request and call her by her name whether it kills him or not.

"Twenty-four." She said, raising her margarita in a mock-toast. "Why? How old are you?" her brown eyes glittered with ill-disguised humor.

"A lot older than twenty-four." He replied, twisting his tumbler in his hand. She smiled at him.

"Good." Carlton looked up at her in surprise.

"Excuse me?"

"I've got a thing for older guys." Carlton swallowed hard.

**6. Hollywood's Not America- Ferras**

It was different, waking up to someone who wasn't Lucinda or his ex-wife. Jory didn't sleep on her side of the bed (like his ex) or with her back to him (like Lucinda). She invaded his space, snuggling into his side, an arm thrown across his waist, her head pillowed on his shoulder.

Carlton hadn't had enough to drink last night to forget what had happened after the bar. He remembered making out in his car, driving her to his place because if he was going to do this it wasn't going to be a hook-up in her hotel room, finally being able to touch that strip of skin that had been burned in his mind since that late night, he remembered being inside her, how she felt when she moved around him, when she came, how she dragged him with her.

Jory stirred in his arms, muscles rippling under her skin as she moved, her golden hair sliding across her bare skin in a way that Carlton could only describe as sensual. Then she opened her big brown eyes and looked up at him and smiled sleepily and Carlton knew he'd remember that too.

**7. Butterfly- Unknown**

Carlton wasn't one for pet names. Never really had been. That's why he surprised himself when he poked his head into the bathroom to ask Jory what she wanted for breakfast and the word 'babe' slipped out. She replied from the shower that she was hungry enough to eat a horse and he decided right then and there that they're going out to breakfast because all he had was Total and milk that was rapidly nearing its expiration date and that was in no way horse-like.

At the diner down the street from his apartment, they sat on the same side of the corner booth (because they might be doing whatever it was that they were doing, but they were still cops) with Jory tucked under his arm, both pouring over the menu.

She made him laugh when she ordered the Meat Lovers breakfast, making the waitress's ears turn red when she slyly added that she's loves meat.

**8. Taxicab Messiah- Kidneythieves**

They arrived at the office around the same time, but separately. Walking through the front doors, Carlton found her standing near his desk, deep in conversation with a tall, brawny man that he'd never seen before. Jory didn't look happy, in fact, she looked downright thunderous. She caught Carlton's gaze and he was momentarily taken aback at how the sweet innocent woman from this morning had turned into this angry warrior-woman. She looked too long because the man in front of her turned around and gave Carlton the once over, his handsome face drawn into a scowl. Carlton ignored the obvious challenge in the man's expression and walked over to his desk, tossing his briefcase onto it.

"Detective Lassiter," Jory greeted him tersely, but he had a feeling that it was just blowback from the man in front of her. "Meet Special Agent in Charge Andrew Bosley." Neither man offered to shake hands. Jory kept talking, looking at Bosley, but speaking to Lassiter.

"I'm being reassigned. SAiC Bosley will be taking over here for me." The last sentence barely registered with Carlton because he's stuck on the first one. "I guess I'll see you around, Carlton." She said, turned around, and walked away without a backwards glance.

**9. Love the Way You Lie- Eminen feat. Rihanna**

Carlton tried to find out where she was. He really did, but every time he called the Los Angeles DEA field office, he was politely if a little coldly told that Special Agent Hendrix was unavailable and no, they didn't'know when she'd be back in the office and after five weeks of disappointment every day, he gave up on that. He was upset with himself for not getting her personal cell phone number that morning at the diner, he was upset with Bosley for coming in and sending her away, he was upset when the O'Neill case wrapped up because it was one less way that he could remember her.

Everyone steered clear of him, including Spencer, all of them seeming to be able to guess at what had occurred between the two officers. O'Hara tried to comfort him once, but he snapped and snarled at her about minding her own business and she turned tail and ran like a puppy with its tail between it's legs and after that, no one really tried to talk to him.

**10. Fireflies- Owl City**

Carlton woke up blearily and somewhat angrily as the pounding on his apartment door intensified. Blinking rapidly to clear the sleep from his eyes, he grabbed his gun off his nightstand, clicked off the safety and stormed out of his bedroom into the living room and over to the front door. Without even checking the peephole, he threw the deadbolt, un-hooked the chain, and yanked the door open with a roared, "What?"

"Well, hello to you too, stud." Jory said as she walked past him into his apartment, the short black skirt that she was wearing swishing enticingly and momentarily distracting Carlton from the fact that it was Jory and she was standing in his living room. He robotically pushed the front door shut behind him, locked the handle and then put his gun on the table beside the door.

"You better be ready to kiss me because if you try and hit me, I'll break your jaw." She said and Carlton can tell that it was meant to be teasing, but there was an undercurrent of unease there. He took two steps, grabbed her around the waist and pulled her hard against his body as he crushed his mouth to hers because at this point, who the hell needed words when he could just show her how much he missed her.

_A/N: Totally my first Psych story! Yay me! _


	2. Chapter 2

More...

* * *

**1. Steal My Kisses From You- Ben Harper**

Jory was harder to pin down than Spencer. At the moment, Carlton was playing phone-tag with his girlfriend and becoming more and more annoyed with each passing second. It didn't help that she was four hundred miles away, chasing down a ring of arms dealers in Tennessee and that the only time that he'd heard her voice in the last three days was over voicemail.

With a sigh, Carlton placed the receiver back on the cradle and ran a hand over his hair. The truth of the matter was that he missed her and the realization itself was almost more painful than the actual missing. He'd sworn after his ex (and then Lucinda) that he'd steer clear of women for a good long time. That had lasted all of five months until Jory blew into his life like a hurricane.

Carlton sighed. Between Jory and Spencer, his life was never going to be boring and he was just now beginning to accept that fact.

**2. American Soldier- Toby Keith**

O'Hara and Jory bond over the fact that they both have older brothers in the Army, O'Hara's in the Special Forces and Jory's in the Executive Protection Program. They discussed long deployments, the fear of not knowing, the yellow ribbons that they flew on the trunks of their respective cars, and the easiest way to get care packages shipped overseas.

Carlton took it all in from his desk as the two women chatted, both already casually comfortable enough with each other for the friendly little touches that women were always giving each other. Jory smiled broadly every time her brother was mentioned and Carlton knew that this meant that at some point he'd be meeting this sibling… well, he sincerely hoped that they'd be together long enough for him to meet this sibling.

**3. Angel of Music- The Phantom of the Opera**

Somehow – and he wasn't not really sure how other than the fact that she'd been bent over his desk at the time, giving him a straight shot down her shirt – Jory talked Carlton into watching a musical with her. It had been a _very _long time since Carlton had just _sat _and watched a movie; no paperwork, no gun-cleaning, nothing other than his arms wrapped around Jory and the popcorn bowl on the coffee table. Jory hummed along with certain parts, sang along with others, and he added to her list of attributes that she sang like an angel.

**4. Bite The Dust- The Pussycat Dolls**

Since Jory operated out of the San Diego field office, she had taken to working there for the week and then driving to Santa Barbara for the weekend. When she called Carlton to tell him that she couldn't make it for the weekend, he'd asked what was wrong and gotten a flat "nothing". Suspicious – and a little worried because Jory didn't answer with "nothing" – Carlton hadn't pressed the issue until the next weekend when she arrived at his door with a duffel bag, a surly attitude, and the fading bruises from someone's fingers around her neck.

He didn't ask right away – mostly because he was too angry to form words – just pulled her into his arms, ignoring the struggle that she put up. A fractured story tumbled out of her about an undercover sting, a discovered wire, a near death experience, and the truth that she'd avoided him last weekend because she'd looked like a domestic abuse victim and didn't want him to see her as weak.

Carlton didn't say anything, but once she was asleep next to him, he whispered everything he'd felt into the darkened room until he was could fall asleep.

**5. Soldier- Destiny's Child**

Carlton wasn't an idiot. He knew that Jory didn't need to be protected. He knew she was better trained in close-quarters combat than with a gun, although she was deadly with both. Still, all that knowledge didn't matter the moment that the asshole at the bar put a hand on her shoulder and shoved.

Before Jory had even regained her footing – high heels weren't exactly tactical gear – Carlton had put himself between the attacker and her, wanting to rip someone's head off. Before anything could devolve into physical violence, the bouncers came roaring in and after Carlton flashed his badge to the biggest one, the troublemaker was tossed out of the bar. Jory gave him a thankful look and that was when Carlton knew she wasn't annoyed at him for stepping in.

**6. If It's Love- Train**

When Carlton's sister called him and asked him to watch Ethan on Saturday, he almost turned her down because he and Jory had plans. However, Jory had been standing close enough to hear when the call came in and she'd given him such an eager look that he'd agreed and come Saturday morning, Carlton had found himself with an armful of squirmy, wide-awake two and a half year old and a diaper bag big enough to qualify as a rolling suitcase.

The morning had been a whirlwind of Go Diego Do, diaper changes, searching the house in search of the non-existent puppy that Ethan was sure his uncle owned, and copious amounts of Cheerios. By two o'clock in the afternoon, Jory was passed out on the couch with Ethan curled up with her and Carlton was sprawled in the recliner in the corner, just watching.

There was no better way to spend a Saturday.

**7. AM Radio- Everclear**

Watching Jory cook was like porn. There was no other way to put it. She wore her Daisy Duke's, a _tiny _little blue tank-top, and lime green socks as she slid around the kitchen, sautéing this, mixing that, and bringing stuff to him at the table for tasting. All of this was of course done with a _whole _lot of ass-shaking to the music coming from the radio on the counter and Carlton didn't think he'd ever been this turned on.

At least he hadn't been until she turned around with the pot of chocolate sauce that she'd been melting down and gave him such a seductive look as she licked the spoon that it was totally understandable that he took her right then and there on the kitchen table.

**8. Never Again- Nickelback**

Jory wasn't answering any of his calls, sending him straight to voicemail every time. Carlton left the tenth voicemail of the week, trying to put some of the worry that was knotting up his chest into his message, and hung up. She was in San Diego… just a three and a half hour drive away. If he left now, he could beat rush-hour. Acting with a rashness that he'd never displayed before Jory entered his life, Carlton left work early, stopped by his apartment for an overnight bag, and hit the freeway.

He pulled into the driveway of her tiny bungalow just as the sun was setting. She opened the door before he got there and without warning threw herself into his arms, her face contorting into a tearful mask. Carlton looked down at the all black clothing that she wore and realization hit like a fist to the gut.

**9. Can't Get Enough Of You Baby- Smashmouth**

Texting had never really been his thing. It was impersonal, it wasn't detailed enough, and it was just plain irritating to have to sit there and type out everything on a tiny little keyboard that he couldn't push the buttons on right. But he sucked it up because Jory loved to text, absolutely loved it. She liked to send him random texts during the day: movie quotes, pictures of things in her life, emoticons, song lyrics, random updates about her life. And then she introduced him to the wonderful world of sexting and for the first time in his life, Carlton could see the advantages of having a full keyboard on a phone.

**10. Need To Know- Marc Anthony**

The question had been floating around in the air for quite a while because Carlton knew what his feelings were on the subject, but Jory had yet to voice anything that wasn't "pass the egg-rolls, babe" or "I only bruised it a _little _bit" or "honey, Spencer's touching me again".

So that's why as she was climbing into her car for her weekly trip back to San Diego, Carlton blurted out, "I Love You" and immediately wanted to run away. She froze, half into the car, half out, and looked up at him with her big brown eyes. Then her lips formed a shy smile and she shut the car door, grabbed him by the front of his t-shirt and pulled him down into a mind-blowing kiss.

"What took you so long?" she whispered against his lips.


End file.
